Sugarcane is a type grass; when you press it, the resulting juice has a sugar content of between 15-20 brix (15-20% sugar). It’s not often that you see crates of raw sugar cane in your local ASDA, but sugar cane products are readily available in the form of crystalised sugar. Different sugars will make subtle changes to the flavour of a rum, each type of sugar is unique depending on its production and origin.

You can also make rum from sugar cane honey (the juice of the cane boiled down and concentrated), or molasses.

Fermentation

Molasses is the raw material used to make the vast majority of the worlds rums. Quite simply, molasses is the bi-product of the sugar refining process. Once all easily obtainable sugar has been extracted from the juice of sugar cane, the leftover sticky black substance is known as ‘black-strap’ or molasses. Surprisingly it can be as rich as 50 brix (50% sugar), though usually it is around 20-30 brix.

These sugars are perfect for fermenting and the other compounds within the molasses provide adequate nutrients for the yeast to thrive.

Fermentation can last anything from 50 hours, right up to 2 weeks for rum. The hot Caribbean/Central American climate, that most rums are produced in, lends itself well to a speedy and efficient ferment, thriving in 25-30°C. Molasses needs first to be diluted with around four parts water to every single part of molasses (though every producer will differ slightly). The sugar level of undiluted molasses would be uninhabitable for yeast.

First, warm you molasses up in a sink full of hot water, this will make it less viscous. Pour the molasses into a fermenting bin and add hot water equal to four times the volume of molasses. The water will need to be hot in order to dilute the molasses sufficiently. Let it cool. When the mixture reaches around 35°C it’s time to add the yeast. Any wine making or, even better, champagne yeast will be up to the challenge, hydrate well before adding it, then give everything a jolly good stir to aerate.

At this stage it is advisable to use a hydrometer to measure the the specific gravity (or relative density) of the unfermented wort. The hydrometer will float at different levels according to the liquids density and its potential alcohol content. A reading of around 1.050 to 1.080, would be a desirable, as it indicates a potential to create 6-10% abv. Once fully fermented another reading can be taken, deducting that number from the original SG will tell you the final abv of the wash, with the help of this chart.

When fermentation is complete the liquid is a bit like a heavy porter, or rich liquorice wine, retaining little of its original sweetness. The sugar has been eaten up by the yeast and converted into alcohol.

This molasses wine is now ready to be distilled. As usual I have managed to get hold of some pictures of the process involved and I am able to share with you some of my thoughts on rum production…

Distillation

Most modern rums derive much of their flavour from the aging process. Often we associate the natural influence of American oak as the flavour of distilled sugar cane, but a lot of the time we are simply tasting the magical influence oak has on a relatively neutral spirit. There are of course exceptions (Wray & Nephew springs to mind), but many of our favourite brands retain little of their distillate character when it eventually comes to bottling.

Rum that is made in a column still usually has most, if not all, of is characteristics removed. It is essentially purified, much like a vodka. In fact many new make (unaged) rums could be legally sold as vodkas if the producer was inclined to do so.

Rum that is pot distilled (in much the same way as a whisky) tends to retain more of the flavours and aromas from the molasses or cane that it is made from. This artisan method of production is far less efficient than a column still, but it does often result in a more naturally characterful spirit. Retaining rich, resinous sugar flavours and usually a fair amount of liquorice too.

The strength of the distillate extracted from a pot still will depend on the shape and height of the still. The longer the neck on a still, the purer and lighter the spirit will be, this is because a long neck encourages reflux to occur. Reflux is a process of evaporation and condensation of spirit and water vapour that takes place continuously within most pot stills. As the fermented wash rises up the neck, the distiller controls the temperature at the head. A steady decrease in temperature from bottom to top encourages only light alcohols to make their way up and over the ‘goose’s neck’. The longer the neck, the greater the chance that impure low alcohols and water will never make it over and in to the condenser.

With this in mind, a pot still with a long neck can produce a spirit of anything up to 40%abv in the first run. This stuff wont be all that drinkable mind you, containing many of the soluble impurities from the wash as well as lighter alcohols like methanol and acetone. No,  the second distillation in pot still is where it’s at, further purifying the spirit and drawing off liquid somewhere in the region of 80% abv.

At this level the resulting liquid (when cut with water to 40% abv) doesn’t smell particularly nice. Plenty of harsh liquorice notes, and none of the sweet, buttery candy-floss tones that we would commonly associate with spirit derived from sugary nectar. But the process is not finished just yet, oh no no no!

The next part involves patience (and an oak barrel).

Ageing

Coincidentally this barrel has my name on it!

The spirit requires ageing.

As I already mentioned, the vast majority of the rums available today go through an ageing process, sometimes only for a matter of days. The reason that producers do this is to positively alter the flavour of the distillate. I often liken oak barrels to inside-out tea bags. The wood contains flavours (cellulose, hemicellulose, tannins and lignins) that will interact with the spirit and, aided by a degree of oxidisation, have a massive impact on the aroma and taste of the liquid.

The surface area of a 5l cask is around 2000 cm² (2.5ml/cm²), comparatively an average industrial oak cask would have a volume of 200l and a surface area of 20,000 cm²(10ml/cm²). A barrel forty times the size has four times the liquid volume to surface area ratio.

In a tiny 5 litre cask, with a low surface area to volume ratio, the effect is noticeable in less than a day.

Below is a picture of rum extracted from a 5l cask after only a month ageing. The rum went in to the barrel crystal clear, but during its time in there it has picked up colour as well as soluble and insoluble compounds. An alcometer tells us that the spirit has an abv of 43%.

A few things to take note of:

1/ It’s cloudy. It seems that some of the compounds taken from the oak are insoluble in water/alcohol. You might suspect that the cloudiness is a result of fusel oils present within the distillate itself, but I can assure you that the spirit was crystal clear before entering the cask.

2/ It has a strange green tinge to it (we’re all thinking urine, I know), rather than the golden colour that we would normally associate with rum.

On a plus side, however, I can vouch for both its taste and smell. The barrel has performed a miracle act, converting some very stubborn odours into buttery, caramel, chocolate softness. The length of finish was once a sickening liquorice twang, now it is a soft, mouth-coating warmth, with just a touch of resinous sugar sweetness. It’s not the best rum in the world, but it’s flavoursome, interesting and, dare I say it, balanced.

So, how to get rid of the cloudiness?

Filtration

Let’s start with a simple mechanical filtration, a paper coffee filter should do.

As you can see, the paper filter has removed much of the larger debris, leaving a residue of brown… stuff… tiny bits of oak I’m assuming. But the spirit is still cloudy. Time for some more aggressive techniques, charcoal filtration should help.

Many of the white rums that we consume are in fact aged products that have been filtered in order to remove the colour. In many cases this is stated on the label: Havana Club Anejo Blanco, “aged white”. As with any other aged rum, this is done to positively influence the the flavour and aroma of the product, softening some of the more aggressive distillery characteristics. These white rums, that are stripped of their colour, are almost always filtered through activated carbon. See my previous post on filtration for more about this.

Activated charcoal is of course quite easy to get hold of, it’s the stuff inside any common water filter cartridge.

I’m going to give my filtration an even better chance of removing the cloudiness by first cooling the spirit right down in a freezer. In the spirits industry this is called ‘chill filtering’. It works on the basis that many of the fatty acids, esters and proteins present within spirits are insoluble at lower temperatures. By chilling the liquid down the filtration process is more likely to be effective. You might have seen certain whiskies advertising themselves as ‘non-chill filtered’. This is because many whisky aficionados believe that the removal of these insoluble compounds is actually detrimental to the taste and aroma of the final product. A non-chill filtered whisky can often be spotted by the addition of water, as many of the compounds that would be removed by the process are also insoluble in lower alcohol solutions. Chill filtering is usually performed at around 0ºC.

And the result? It’s still a bit cloudy…

So the final product is a liquid that has lost much of its colour through the filtration process, and certainly a degree of its cloudiness, but not all of it. I would wager that more filtering, perhaps through a larger filter, would remove all of the haze and probably most of the colour. Or perhaps a laboratory grade filter? Or maybe chilling down the charcoal?

Maybe i’ll have a think about it whilst sipping on a nice ‘Dark and Stormy Clouds’!

As far as non-espresso coffee goes, I have always had a great love for the Aeropress and Cafetiere. One of the problems that I have with the aeropress is that it doesn’t make enough coffee (greed), and the main problem that I and many others have with the good old French press, is that you inevitably get some sludge in the cup no matter what you do to avoid it1. Incidentally my other criticism of the press pot is that a plunged pot, in my eyes, is still brewing away albeit at a slower rate.

I guess the main negative of pour over for me, was that it almost seemed too simple! How can you make coffee brewing easier than by pouring hot water through a filter holding ground coffee? Well you can’t, but as with most things in life – simple is often better.

And that’s true in this case.

Up until quite recently I had been enjoying some great results from my ceramic cone and old school filter. I also own a Bodum Kona and a Bodum Bistro pour over setups, with the gold filters that don’t actually work. But after watching this downright amazing video, which details in perfectly spoken Japanese how the Hario V60 dripper works, I was sold. (Paerhaps it was the rather suggestive young lady holding that oversized paper filter that did it for me?)

So I have been playing around with grind size, dose and even pouring technique. I liken the pouring technique bit to stirring or shaking a cocktail, everyone does it differently, but often little thought is put into exactly why we do things one way or another. Well, there is no doubt in my mind that the way you pour water is crucial to the quality of the final cup. I have even gone as far as to pilfer an an olive oil pourer from my own mothers house, to aid me in my quest for the perfect pour. I want one of those Hario ones, but they have eluded me for the time being! (By the way, anyone know where to pick one up in LA?)

You'd better believe that the spout on that thing delivers water where I want it to be.

I have also been referring to the SCAA coffee brewing control chart. This nifty chart asks you how many grams of coffee you are using per litre of water and then indicates the anticipated TDS (total disolved solids) for the brew. By measuring the TDS you can find the percentage of solubles yield from the extraction, and from this you can gauge how successful the brew was and whether or not you need to alter your dose, grind size, or pouring technique. It can also clear up issues involving a bitter tasting or underdeveloped cup of coffee.

Of course we all ultimately rate the quality of a cup of coffee by the level of enjoyment we get from it, but it really is even more enjoyable when you have the science to back it up. My Hario produces a wonderful clean cup of translucent red coffee that exhibits all of the characteristics of the bean that I want transferred into the drink. It’s quick to use, a great economical way of drinking coffee and hardly any cleaning is required. What more can you ask for?

Somehow a very specifically flavoured spirit, originating from Holland, has become a staple product on every backbar. It only really dawned on me recently the magnitude of the feat. Whisky, rum, Tequila, Cognac and vodka are all spirits whose flavour are derived from the products that they are made from and in some cases, time spent in oak. Gin is a flavoured spirit, a flavoured vodka in fact, its taste comes from the unique botanicals added during its production, primarily juniper berries, coriander seeds and angelica root.

It is for this reason that gin is wonderful drink to make. The distillers choice of botanicals and the way he/she expresses them in the final product are variables that can be controlled and then appreciated in the end result.

Anyone can make gin at home by ‘compounding’ a botanical essence into a bottle of vodka, or by simply infusing vodka with the chosen botanicals. An infusion of botanicals into a bottle of vodka, though easy to do, will of course result in a murky coloured spirit and potentially the need for aggressive filtration. It is also likely to add a certain chewiness, sweetness and undesirable thick body to the spirit. The other ’simple’ alternative is cold compounding, this would require making a super strong gin essence, probably by infusing a bottle of vodka, then adding some of that essence to a seperate bottle of neutral spirit.  Again, this will require some level filtering, but you can potentially remove most if not all of the colour this way.

The above methods were practiced by one in four Londoners during the gin craze of the 1700’s. Folk would buy in spirit from distillers, then flavour it with turpentine, bay salt and occassionally juniper berries. It became known as bathtub gin for obvious reasons.

There is of course another way to make gin… by distilling it.

The Complete Distiller (1757) by Ambrose Cooper, describes distilling Geneva in the following manner:

Take of Juniper-berries three Pounds, Proof Spirit ten Gallons, Water four Gallons. Draw off by a gentle Fire till the Faints begin to rise, and make up your Goods to the Strength required with clean Water.

This simple process requires only proof spirit (spirit of 50% abv), water and juniper berries. The products are heated in a still together and the vapour is collected and condensed. All vapour is collected until the heavy feints begin to come through at the end. The resulting liquid is then cut with water until the desired strength is acheived. When cut to proof (50% abv), the spirit  is classed as Royal Geneva.

However the above recipe is for a high quality product not typically found in London’s Alehouses at the time, the following recipe for Common Geneva would be what your average street seller would be peddling:

Take of the ordinary Malt Spirits ten Gallons; Oil of Turpentine two Ounces, Bay Salt three Handfulls. Draw off by a gentle Fire till the Faints begin to rise, and make up your Goods ot the Strength required with clean Water.

Nice. The writer then comments:

In this manner is the common Geneva made, and it is suprizing that People should accustom themselves to drink it for pleasure.

Quite.

The Complete Distiller then goes on to mention Holland’s Geneva as “greatly esteemed”, the main difference being that it is based upon French Brandy rather than grain spirit.

Worryingly, over a 100 years on, The Complete Practical Distiller (1880) by Dr. M. La Fayette Bryn describes a mostly unchanged recipe for Common Gin:

Take ordinary malts spirits 10 gallons; oil of turpentine, 2 ounces; juniper-berries, 1 pound, sweet fennel and carraway seeds, of each 4 handfuls; bay-salt 3 handfuls. Draw off by a gentle fire till the feints begin to rise. and make up your goods to the stength required.

What is interesting however, is the introdcution of flavours other than juniper (and turpentine!).

Recreating some of these old recipes would be interesting, though I doubt the results would be all that drinkable in comparison to todays premium gins. An old recipe that does rely on traditional flavours along with more modern production methods (i.e. no turpentine) is this one, for A Buck of Strong Gin (taken from and undisclosed but highly credible source):

• 429 lbs juniper berries
• 265 lbs coriander seeds
• 36.5 lbs angelica root
• 18.5 lbs cassia
• 2 lbs savory

It is this recipe that I would recreate (were I a distiller)… and here is how I would do it:

First you need a neutral base, ideally a spirit that has been rectified to 96%. This could be vodka (though  you’re certanly not going to be saving yourself any money using bottled vodka) or any other neutral distilled spirit. The more neutrality in the base spirit the better the canvas upon which the botanicals can be painted.

This spirit needs to be watered down to around 50% abv (proof) and loaded into the still along with the botanicals. For a 8 litre batch of 50% abv neutral spirit I would use around 35g/litre 50% abv spirit. Exactly when you add the botanicals to the still will affect the final product. Rather like making a cup of tea you may choose to infuse the fruit and spices from cold, or to add them once the proof sprit is already hot. Brands like Beefeater macerate their botanicals for 24 hours before distillation.

As the botanicals heat up in the base of the still, just like in a teapot, the essence of the fruits and spices are released into the liquid. As alcohol vapour evaporates up through the neck of the still these aromatic compounds are carried with it, making their way to the condensor only to drip out as perfectly clear gin flavoured lovliness.

The real skill of the gin distiller comes in to play when cutting the spirit. Just like leaving a teabag in a teapot for too long or too short a time, the soluble oils and compounds from the botanicals are released at different rates during the distillation process. It is for this reason that the distiller cuts away the start and the end of the run of spirit, leaving only a balanced and refined product or middle cut.

In fact each and every botanical will rear it’s head at different times and temperatures during the distillation process, with coriander being the first aroma to fill a distillery when a new batch of gin is under way. Generally the juniper flavours come later on the process, rich leather and pine spices.

After the run is finished and your cuts have been made, you will be left with a spirit of around 70-85% abv. This botanical spirit is ready to be cut with water to bottling strength. This stage is crucial as it marks the end flavour profile of the spirit and can drastically affect the flavours and aromas that are dominant in the product.

I have been fortunate enough to get hold of some uncut gin and had a go at cutting it myself. The process I followed involved cutting the spirit to 60% abv and then adding precise quantities of water to different samples in order to find the perfect abv. I cut to 55%, 50%, 45% and 40% then nosed and tasted the results. Each one displayed hugely differing aromas, from fresh citrus at the higher end of the scale, to warm cinnamon spice in the middle and rich juniper notes at the bottom. The ratios of the botanicals that you use are irrelevant if the final product is not cut with care. The significance of this becomes apparent when you notice the different and very precise abv’s of the most popular premium gins on the market.

This months Mixology Monday is hosted by Kevin Langmack at Beers in the Shower. The title is ‘Money Drinks’, at first leading me to brainstorm some of the most expensive cocktails that I have made in the past. But the theme is actually referring to money in terms of ‘money shot’ or ‘we’re in the money’. In other words Kevin is looking for drinks that you can pull out like a signature move or superhero ability!

There are further descriptions on the Mixology Monday announcement post page, they kind of confused me though! Anyway, I’m taking it that Kevin is looking for killer cocktails to pull out when you really want to impress someone, regardless of their everyday preferences.

Phew! Let’s just get on with the frickin’ drink!

I had a little think about drinks that I have made in the past that are sure to impress. Perhaps ones that I wouldn’t normally make due tot he cost or effort involved. Of course you can take any cocktail and upgrade its ingredients almost indefinitely, but in my opinion this can end up only achieving a vagueness in quality and the sacrifice of some expensive booze.

The drink that I settled on is one that I always enjoy making, because it never fails to get a good reception. It’s an aperitif that I have pulled out on countless occasions, when a customer is not sure what to drink before a meal and especially when they don’t want to settle for a simple (though satisfying) G&T. It holds true to the ’simple is better’ mantra, whilst having a rich complexity and one unique ingredient.

It’s the ‘GT Turbo’.

Don’t let a name put you off, it’s supposed to be tongue in cheek… I think, plus it does have some relevance to the drink itself. The drink is best described as an espresso of Gin & Tonic. A turbo charger in a car compresses air, this drink compresses the flavours and aromatics of a G&T into a short strong slap of tongue curling gin loveliness.

This is achieved by making a tonic water syrup.

It just occurred to me that this could possibly be made simply by reducing down a bottle of tonic water until it is an essence of its former self. Though that method may or may not work (I’d like to hear from you if you’ve done it), I have always gone down the route of making my own tonic water and you can see my recipe here.

Once you have a ready supply of tonic syrup, piecing together the drink is easy…

Glass: Martini
Garnish: Lime Twist

Ingredients

• 50ml Tanqueray TEN
• 20ml Lime Juice
• 15ml Tonic Syrup
• Half an egg white

Shake everything hard, then single strain into a chilled Coupe.

Yes, it’s that easy. The ratio of ingredients creates a citrus driven cocktail that has all the elements of a G&T, but with a serious kick. The egg whites serves as replacement tingle for our absent friend, Mr. soda.

This was from a cocktail shoot I did for a magazine. This version of the drink separates the tonic and egg white into a foam on top. The base is pretty much just a gin sour.

If you like to drink Gin & Tonic (show me someone who doesn’t), then you can’t fail to like this drink. It’s probably one of my proudest creations and yet one of the most simple. Happy drinking this Christmas!

But this house is not home to a small middle class family, or a large middle class family for that matter. Neither doesn’t have any bedrooms, or rooms that anyone sleeps in, that is.

No this house is special. It is special because it is managed by a crack team of four individuals, nay guaridans, who are sworn to catalogue, research, acquire and protect the Diageo archives.

What are the Diageo archives?

The archives are collections, records, memorabilia, portraits, adverts, bottles, documents and accounts that together make up the histories of the Diageo brands – Gordon’s, Tanqueray, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Booth’s, Gilbey’s and countless single malt whiskeys.

Upon entering it seems like any other house, besides the enviable cocktail book collection in the main drawing room. It’s not until you descend the stairs into the climate controlled archive room that the magnitude of the collection hits you. Row upon row of cabinets holding company records dating well back into the 19th century and sometimes 18th centuries.

Vintage bottles of spirits that you’re unlikely to even see on eBay due to their rarity. Original portraits of brand founders such as Alexander Gordon and pre Russian Revolution Smirnoff artifacts.  Hand written recipe books by Alexander Walker II and the only document in existence that shows the signature of one ‘John Walker’. I would estimate the value of the entire archive collection in the hundred’s of millions of pounds ball park.

Jo is one of the archive curators and she took us on a tour of some of the most interesting historical items. Jo is one of the few people I have met who shows the same kind of passion and enthusiasm for the history of the brands (particularly gin in her case) as us ambassadors. Regrettably Christine, who is the manager of the building, was not there. I would have like to have quizzed on her some Smirnoff stuff, as it is reputably her specialist subject!

Back upstairs we visited two separate bottle rooms, holding mostly unopened examples of pretty much every bottle produced by the brands featured. Original 1924 pre-mixed Gordon’s cocktail bottles (who said ‘Hooch’ was the first alcopop?!) and all six of the Pimms cups together again. One of the most interesting pieces is a very old Johnnie Walker bottle that for some unknown reason holds an entire snake! One of the possible explanations for this relates to a tradition of putting a snake in the bottle of the first product produced by a new distillery.

Needless to say there is a huge amount of interesting stuff at the archives, far to much to feature everything. Do take a look at the Flickr set for some more pictures and if there are any specifics you would like to know about just ask.

Vodka is a colourless, odourless neutral spirit produced from anything with either a starch or sugar content. It is made by concentrating alcohol present within fermented material such as grain, potato, grapes and molasses, this is achieved via process of distillation. If you have every made beer, cider or wine at home you are half of the way towards making vodka.

The unique part about about vodka production is the purity required to make it taste more or less neutral. This level of purity can only be achieved by distilling the fermented liquid (or wash) to a very high percentage of alcohol, above 90% is the general consensus, but it needs to be at least 96% to be legally classed as a vodka in Europe. Because alcohol (or the ethanol part to be precise) is totally neutral, we are nearly eradicating any remnant of flavour or aroma from the product by distilling to 96%+. It’s called rectifying the spirit.

Of course you’ll never see vodka bottled at that strength, they are all watered down (with de-mineralised water) to around 40% abv after filtering.

The process of extracting the ethanol from the wash works on the principal that ethanol turns to gas at 78.3°C, whilst water only fully vapourises at 100°C. By heating a solution of the two to the correct temperature we can effectively boil off the alcohol, condense the vapour and collect a liquid that is stronger in alcoholic content than the one we started with.

Proportionally, ethanol doesn’t freeze until it reaches around -114°C. Around 1200 years ago eastern Europeans took advantage of this science and they were able to concentrate alcohol from wine by leaving it out in the freezing cold and scraping away slushy alcohol from off the top of the frozen water. An early form of vodka perhaps, but not the point of this post and certainly not something that I would recommend doing!

So how do you make vodka?

Fermentation

Well firstly you need to make alcohol. We can do this by selecting anything with a sugar or starch content. There’s plenty to choose from, but the most readily available and cheapest option is quite simply, sugar.

Table sugar can be converted into an alcoholic wash fairly easily and you get plenty of alcohol for your money, many budget vodkas are made from molasses (the bi-product of sugar refinery) as it is very cheap and contains lots of sugar. The only thing that table sugar lacks from a production perspective, is the yeast nutrients (potassium, salt et al) naturally present within things like grapes and grain. This is because table sugar is around 97% sucrose, so very little of anything else. Fortunately you can buy yeast nutrients for very little and supplement your fermentation with it.

“You require approx 17g of sugar for every %.litre of alcohol you want to make. Eg if you want to make 20L of a 14% alcohol wash, you need 17 x 20 x 14 = 4760g = 4.76 kg of sugar.” Homedistiller.org

Hold on a sec I hear you shout! How come all the best vodkas are made from grain, grape or potato? It’s a good point and it’s totally true that you’re much more likely to get truly great results by using grain etc. Don’t forget that making vodka requires a very high purity of distillate, so much of the character from the original product will be lost. The tiny nuances left over after distillation are what differentiates great vodkas and poor vodkas. One thing that a sugar based vodka will certainly lack is the mouthfeel, texture and viscosity of a wheat or potato vodka.

The final factor to think about in fermentation is the yeast. All yeasts work differently to one another, with some working very quickly and others taking quite a while. Some yeasts are not capable of fermenting to higher strengths (above 12%), so distillers need to use the right one, champagne yeasts and turbo yeasts Turbo yeasts are specific strains designed to work very quickly. A turbo yeast usually comes in dried form and includes all they yeast nutrients required to make it work very quickly, it also includes dried citric acid, which is necessary to keep the relatively high PH that is important for fermentation are usually a safe bet.

It’s worth measuring the specific gravity (using a hydrometer) of your wort at this point, it will give you an indication of the potential alcohol yield and it’s also means of checking that fermentation doesn’t stall after a couple of days. This is also the only way to really know the resulting alcohol abv of your wash before distillation. Fermentation is finished when the specific gravity reads 0.990-0.980, this should take about a week (only around 48 gours with a turbo yeast), the other indication being no more bubbles rising to the surface. The main factor to be aware of is the temperature of your wash Different yeasts prefer different temperatures, but between 20-26°C is a safe bet, even higher for a turbo yeast as this significantly affects the rate of fermentation.

Distillation

I think it is worth reiterating that the distillation of strong alcohol within many countries is illegal.

Here is how the law stands in the UK (taken from Alcoholic Liquor Duties Act 1979).

The penalty incurred in the event of any of the above is detailed below (Finance Act 1994).

Once again, this blog does not condone, encourage or participate in any illegal activities (relating to that of making spirits anyway!).

Distilling to 90%+ requires specialist equipment and precision temperatures. In order to rectify a spirit the distiller needs to have a still capable of generating reflux in a column. Reflux is the procedure of holding a stable temperature within the column of a still, by controlling the temperature at both the top and bottom of the of the neck.

The bottom of the column (near the heat source) will always be hotter than the top. The hot bottom encourages the water and alcohol present within the wash to evaporate up through the column. At the top of the column cooling water is used to regulate a temperature of 78.3°C, the boiling point of ethanol. As the various spirit and water vapours travel up through the column they pass through packing material, this can be in the form of copper, ceramic, steel or any other material that conducts heat well. This material helps to hold a steady decrease in temperature from top to bottom. As a result of this, any compound with a boiling point higher than 78.3°C will at some point during its journey to the top of the column, condense back into a liquid and fall back to the bottom of the still. Any compound with a boiling point lower than, or including, 78.3°C (i.e ethanol) will find it’s way to the top of the column and the condenser.

Below is a picture that I found of a still operating with a perfect temperature at the top of the column.

Once the pure spirit vapour reaches the condenser it is cooled and converted into liquid form and it then drips out as nearly pure ethanol.

Cutting

Ethanol is not the only type of alcohol present within an alcoholic wash, you will also find trace amounts of methanol (boils at 64°C) and acetone (boils at 56°C) at the lower end of the scale and propanol (82°C) and butanol (116°C) at the higher end. A good distiller will make every effort to remove these other alcohols from the distillate by cutting out the start (foreshots) and end (feints) of the run, leaving only the ethanol that flows in the middle of the process. Why? Well the lighter alcohols are very dangerous, they can kill you, and the heavier alcohols like propanol tend to smell and taste pretty nasty, as well as containing lots of congeners. The first part of the run also contains the volatile aldehydes, which are produced during fermentation via the oxidisation of ethanol, though not necessarily dangerous, they do give a rather pungent aroma that is undesirable in vodka.

Those very light alcohols that boil at a lower temperature than ethanol are extremely keen to escape at the start of the run, with that in mind the first liquid to flow through (the first 5-10% for example) is discarded until the distiller that the run is of a high purity.

As the ethanol extraction comes to an end heavier alcohols will begin to dominate the top of the still along with water. The distiller will notice a drop in alcohol purity of the distillate and a sudden temperature increase of around 4°C. It is at this point that the distiller must redirect the flow of distillate and stop collecting the heart of the spirit. These ‘feints’ or tails contain a group of compounds collectively known as fusel oils. Fusel oils will contribute a significant aroma to the product if not cut away and it is the retention of these compounds that mark much of the difference between western (pure) and eastern (characterful) styles of vodka. The final product should register at least 90% abv using an alcometer, this figure should be adjusted according to the temperature of the alcohol.

The next step involves cutting the heart of the product to a maximum of 73% abv ready for filtration. It is important that the abv is low enough so as not to break down the structure of the activated charcoal during filtration. Check out my article on filtration for an in depth look at the purpose and gains from the process. Filtering can be done through either a dedicated column filter packed with charcoal or even a Brita water filter from the kitchen!

Finishing

After filtration the final stage is to cut the spirit to bottling strength. There is evidence to suggest that a resting period in stainless steel can benefit the product at this stage, but it is not essential (neither is filtering for that matter). Most vodkas are bottled at 38-40% abv, so diluting the alcohol to this strength (with de-mineralised water) is all that is left to do.

It started at Rumfest, the only trade/consumer show that I can think of which specialises in one spirit category. It also happens to be my favourite show, capturing the essence of rum and allowing the attendees to freely enjoy the spirits and have a lot of fun. One of the other things that I like about the show is that both consumers and professionals are allowed in, I found myself explaining both the basics of rum to uninitiated ‘plus ones’, and having in depth chats with leading bartenders and brand ambassadors.

Now is probably a good time to mention that I was working with Daryl Haldane and Rich Beaumont on the Ron Zacapa stand.

The show ran for two days opening at the sensible time of 12am on Saturday 24th October, but even then it didn’t really get busy until later in the afternoon. Once it was busy however, it was really busy. It’s not often you find a sampling station four deep with willing participants!

Of course there was an added bonus in the form of the diminutive yet highly revered Lorena Vasquez. It was the first time that I had met Lorena, the master blender of Ron Zacapa, and apart from the language barrier she was as charming and interesting as I had hoped she would be. My main concern was that I found enough ways to extract priceless pearls of rum aging wisdom from her, I think I did well!

The first day of the festival was followed by dinner at The Floridita in Soho with Lorena and her gang. For once Laura had come up to London with me (because it was the weekend) and it was great for us both to visit a bar who’s counterpart in Cuba we are both familiar with (even though I had been to the London Floridita before!). Dinner was lovely, though it took a long time for the rum to get flowing, slow service probably due to the vast numbers of people crammed down there.

The Monday and Tuesday saw two World Class finals that I was both organising and compering, London and South.

London on the Monday kicked off at midday with five competitors from all around the capital:

• Patrick Hobbs – Boisdale Bishopsgate
• Simon La’Moon – Townhouse
• Erik Lorincz – Connaught
• Denis Mendes – Connaught
• Andy Mil – London Cocktail Club

The judges were Colin Dunn (my whisky ambassador colleague) and Tristan Welch (chef extraordinaire from Launceston Place). I devised a devilish format for the competition, which required all competitors to make two drinks in the first round using Pampero Especial and Pampero Anniversario. One of the drinks was titled ‘Navy Grog’ and it required the bartender to create an authentic Navy/seafaring themed drink that was ‘fit for the Captain’s table’. The other drink in the first round was to be themed around Tiki culture, opening up many opportunities for their presentations, though ultimately resulting in punch bowls, dry ice and plastic lobsters!

In the final round the top two competitors were asked to make and original Ron Zacapa cocktail. The winner was Erik from the Connaught, he will be winging his way to Venezuela next year as well as appearing on a London billboard and competing in next years UK final, lucky guy.

The Southern final was held at one of my favourite bars, Urban Beach in Bournemouth. Barrie Wilson (from Reserve Brands) and Andy Coleman (of previous World Class fame) were judging what turned out to be a fiercely competitive competition.

Competitors were:

• Chris Lacey-Malvern – Speakeasy, Exeter
• Jon Lister – Urban Beach, Bournemouth
• Christos Kyriakides – Vanilla Rooms, Cardiff
• Dave Jones – Nathan Outlaws Seafood & Grill, Cornwall
• Kashi Forootani – 1812, Bournemouth

Chessnuts were roasted and umbrellas were toasted, egos were tarnished and dragons were garnished.

Ultimately it was Kashi and Christos who made it to the final. Christos lost the toss and was up first with a polished confident performance. It was all going well for Kashi until a whipped mascarpone malfunction in a tiramisu themed drink lost him serious points and the win. Christos will be on the trip with Erik and appearing on a billboard somewhere in Cardiff!

Sometimes I think I think that there is actually too much stuff for me to write about on this blog. So I tell myself to be selective about what I am going to cover and then up selecting nothing at all. Your feedback on anything that I have written that has interested you, or any subjects that I have only partially covered or not written about at all would be massively appreciated.

There you go, I didn’t even begin to write about the 40+ rums that I sampled at Rumfest.

Cooking

After harvesting, the agave hearts (piñas) are transported from the field to the distillery. Most distilleries have facilities to process the piña all the way from plant to spirit, but some of the smaller producers are known to buy in processed agave syrup ready for fermenting.

Off the truck the piñas are cut up ready for loading in to ovens. All but the smallest piña are chopped in half (or quarters if they are particularly big), this usually takes place on patios in front of the ovens. The hearts are then carefully loaded into giant steam ovens ready for baking. We actually got near an oven in operation and the smell was reminiscent of pungent tequila aroma itself.

Oven number 6 at Jose Cuervo's La Rojena distillery

Before the 19th century agave hearts were roasted using wood fueled fires in much the same way that Mescal is still produced today. But Jaliscos forests were significantly depleted by the turn of the 18th century due to the demand for wood to heat the ovens so Tequila producers switched to steam ovens. Still fueled by wood, but far more efficiently, this changeover meant that less fuel was required and that more of the natural qualities of the agave were retained over roast character (which is noticeable in Mescal).

The process of baking the hearts is an important part of production as it converts the natural starch within the vegetable into fermentable sugars. The temperature of the oven is relatively cool so as not to burn the outside of the piña and leave the inside uncooked, usually around 170°C (but this figure varies). Other producers may choose to cook faster and hotter.

Some producers, Don Julio being one of them, choose to use a two stage cooking process. An initial two hour cycle that caramelises many of the external waxy compounds and then a full 72 hours to cook the piñas all the way through. After the initial two hour burst the liquid at the bottom of the oven, which sits in troughs, is drained away as it contains bitter grassy flavours.

Mashing

After cooking the piñas are now soft and sweet, I ate some and it reminded me of a very sweet sweet potato. The sugar content of a roasted piña should sit at around 20% (20 Brix). Jose Cuervo for one, test five piñas from every truck load that arrives for potential sugar before roasting, they aim for 20-25 Brix and if the quality of the samples is low enough they’ll reject the whole truck (and the Jimadores don’t get paid).

The piñas are sent for crushing where they are first mixed with water. The mashing can work in various different ways, it was originally done with wooden mallets! At Don Julio the mash moves along a set of conveyor belts where it is repeatedly mashed and pressed. At each stage the juice is extracted, a total of five times, with varying degrees of clarity and purity at each stage. These sweet juices are then collected together ready for fermentation.

More water is added until a level of around 15 Brix is achieved, any higher than this and they yeast would not be able to survive. The aquamiel (honey water) is then transferred into fermentation vats where the yeast culture is introduced.

Fermenting

As we know fermentation is a very complex subject, so to keep this short i’ll stick to some basic facts. The final alcohol alcohol after fermentation will be around 5% ABV. This stuff is called mosto (must, or wort) and the process can take only a few days or up to two weeks depending on the the style of product that the distiller is aiming to produce. This length of time depends on the strain of yeast, temperature of fermentation (20-26°C for a quick fermentation). Ultimately the yeast will die once the alcohol reaches 5-6%, but once again this depends on how resilient the particular strain is.

The most important thing is to prevent the fermentation vat from getting too hot during the midday sun, if the liquid temperature rises above 30°C it could kill off the yeast, which would be disastrous. This can be prevented to a certain extent by using very large fermentation vessels that take a long time to adjust to ambient temperature. There are 20 vessels at Don Julio’ LA Primavera distillery and each one is around 20,000 litres in capacity, at Jose Cuerveo’s La Rojena the vats are over twice the size.

Don Julio actually use a strain of yeast that has been cultivated from the natural yeasts that ferment agave leaves. The brand Herradura claim to be the only producer that use natural airborne yeasts, leaving fermentation entirely to chance. Although this is certainly an interesting facet to their production process it could and can result in a inconsistent product.

It it also worth mentioning that it is at this stage that Jose Cuervo introduce additional non-agave sugars to their product when making mixto Tequilas. Molasses, corn or any other non-agave sugar source can account for up to 49% of the sugar that makes up a mixto tequila, the other 51% (at least) being from the blue agave. I found this interesting as I wasn’t previously aware that the two different products were fermented together, which actually added a certain level of credibility towards mixtos for me personally.

Distillation

Copper pot stills at La Rojena

Nearly all Tequilas are distilled twice. A double distillation is the legal minimum, as stipulated by the Tequila Regulatory Council, but there are some producers who choose to distill three times, or use a continuous still. Both the use of the  continuous still, or distilling a third time have the effect of purifying the spirit, making it much more susceptible to age characteristic and generally lighter in character. This is quite rare however, because the very best brands of Tequila are renowned for capturing the agave essence in their product.

Don Julio use sixteen different stills, all of them are different combinations of copper and stainless-steel and therefore each produce a slightly different distillate. Ultimately the distillates of all but still number 16 are blended together to make Don Julio Blanco, Reposado and Anejo. The smaller number 16 still is used only to produce the 1942 and Real varieties of Don Julio, which lead the way at the very pinnacle of Tequila quality (at a price!). It’s worth mentioning that copper does have a distinct effect on the liquid over SS in that it erodes into the liquor over time, imparting a very subtle character that is measurable in some finished Tequila.

Jose Cuervo use entirely copper stills (picutred) for production of Classico, Especial, Tradicional, Platino and Reserva de La Familia.

The first distillation produced a liquid of around 25% known as Ordinario.  When distilling for the second time the liquid will condense through over a length of hours. As time goes by the run of liquid changes from very light alcohol with low boiling points (such as methanol), right up to heavy alcohols that boil at much higher degrees (collectively known as fusel oils). Both ends of the distillate contain undesirable chemicals and it is the job of the distiller to ‘cut’ the heads and tails, both for the safety of the consumer, but also as a means of refining their product down to the desired flavour/aroma.

Every litre of the 100% agave clear heart that is run off the still will have required nearly 9kg of agave piñas to make it at 55% ABV.

Tune in next time for the final part in the series where we examine aging, bottling and styles.

Tequila is made from one specific variety of the Agave plant – agave tequilano weberWeber was the botanist who first categorised the variety in the early 19th century, or blue agave.

Agave is not a cactus, it’s actually a succulent and a relative of the lily. The blue agave takes between six and thirteen years to reach its maturity and be ready for harvesting. The exact length of time is dependent on the terroir; taking in to account, climate, altitude, direction that the land is facing and any treatment or trimming given to the plant during its lifetime. With this in mind it is fair to say that even a blanco tequila that is made from 100% agaveOther mixto Tequilas using only a majority agave sugars are available was first conceived at least six years ago.

Once mature the plant will stock pile energy in the form of starch in preparation for flowering. The job of the Jimador is to harvest the plant before this flowering ever takes place as it will result in the withering of the heart.

The plant reproduces in two different ways, either by flowering mini agaves once mature, or by spawning small agave from its base after around four years.

During the long maturation period it is the job the the Jimador to tend the plant and to plant new agave. On the Cuervo plantation the agave leaves are trimmed back regularly, this is to stop bugs setting up nest in the sheltered curled tips of the leaves. It also accelerates the time it takes for the plant to reach maturity, a process known as barbeo. Don Julio choose not to trim their leaves, but rather let the plant grow with more room to stretch out and mature naturally. This does result in the occasional use of pesticidesThat is not to say that other farms who do trim the leaves of the plant don’t use pesticides! however.

The Jimador uses a tool rather like a large hoe called a coa. So sharp you could shave with it, the coa is struck through the thick fibrous leaves (pencas) of the plant, slicing them off and revealing the heart of the plant known as the pineapple or piná, named because of it’s obvious similarity to the fruit. I spent a great deal of time trying to find someone who sold coas in Guadalajara, unfortunately I was out of luck, but I have a man still hunting for me so fingers crossed customs let it in the country!

There are both male and female agave, the male plants require an extra process of splitting the piná open and removing the central core. This core if left untouched can add a bitter grassy edge to the baked piná. A good jimador can tell the difference between a male and female plant just by looking at the piná.

Below are two videos of Jimadores for Cuervo and Don Julio respectively. The videos show the variation in how close to the heart the piná is cut, Cuervo leave a small tip of  the leaves meaning that there is more fermentable mass, it’s also much quicker to do. Don Julio cut much closer to the centre of the plant, which takes a lot longer to get right but it also means that the product is made from only the best bits. Don Julio are the only Tequila producers that work to this standard and it’s this refusal of compromise that continued to impress us at every stage of production.

Ismel the Jimador who features in the first video is the fourth generation of his family to work for Cuervo. He has been doing this job for 36 years (since the age of nine) and can jima around 300 agave per day (and they only work until lunch time)!

If you are desperate to see what it looks like when someone inexperienced has a go at cutting the agave, take a look at this idiot…

Often the ranches on which the agave are grown are in pretty remote or inaccessible areas. Ismel combats this by use of his faithful friend the mule. I can’t remember remember her name, but she is named after a Mexican pop star! The mule can carry around five whole piná, but they can vary from between 50 – 300lbs! The pina are then loaded onto a truck and taken to the distillery for cooking.

Why not check out part two in the series, which covers baking, mashing, fermentation and distillation of the agave.

For more Jimador and Tequila pictures check out the full flickr set.

It’s been nice to have a few people ask me ‘what’s going on with the blog posts?’, and to have a little rest from it. Anyway, from now on I hope to be back to a steady one-a-week posting schedule, or simply whenever there’s something interesting to write about. I can’t help but feel that despite all of the instant messaging joy Twitter has brought us, it has also killed off the impulsive blog post on something random and interesting at the time. Maybe a good thing, maybe not.

Back on track. I’ve been doing a lot of rum training recently and as usual my sessions seem to focus mostly on the history side of things. Most bartenders are geeks to the flavours of their favourite spirits, if they have some juicy history to go alongside this, all the better.

Rum has by far and away the richest history of any liquor, in fact it’s history is probably as rich as all the other spirits put together. In both the sense that there is a massive wealth of stories involving rum, but also that many of these stories had huge historical impact. Take a look at my rum timeline, which desperately needs an update (weird how you can look back on a bit of work that you were proud of once, but in hindsight realise it needs some attention!), it displays a few of the historical conquests of rum and how it forged the new world.

The Slave Ship Sally's triangular voyage

I just want to concentrate on one aspect of the rum story in this post and a very specific part of that aspect in itself. The reason that this came about is that I was looking for rum pictures relating to the slave trading triangle that operated between the West coast of Africa, the Caribbean and the New England colonies.

In the simplest possible terms, slaves would be purchased in West Africa using rum, then they would be shipped to the Caribbean islands and traded for molases and sugar, which would in turn be taken to the New England coast and traded for rum, then back to Africa and so on.

One of the interesting things about this triangle is the fact that there was no money involved. Like a primitive stock exchange, slaves had a exchange rate against rum, which had an exchange rate against mollases, which had an exchange rate against  slaves. It just so happened that this market rate was always grossly in the favour of the trader traveling the triangle clockwise.

The Slave ship Salleys manifest includes a stock of over seventeen thousand gallons of rum for trading on the Guinea coast.

This was further solidified when I came across the documents from ‘The Slave Ship Sally’. Sally commenced an 18 month voyage in 1764, trading (amongst other things) rum, slaves and sugar. You can see more details about the voyage on the website, but here are some of my favourite documents charting the astonishing trading that took place.

This receipt shows that on Fifteenth of Novemeber the Sally traded One-hundred and fifty-six gallons of rum for one male and one female slave. If you do the maths you can see that a female slave is worth around one-hundred gallons of rum, the boy is worth seventy.

There are over eighty original documents on the website divulging all manner of trading and commerce. The Sally returned to the Caribbean nine months after hitting the African coast, during it’s time there it purchased nearly two-hundred slaves. Around twenty were sold before embarking for the West Indies, over one-hundred had died before the ship arrived. All in all the voyage was a failure, with sickly slaves fetching a poor price at market. The Sally returned to Providence with a cargo of salt (rather than sugar) in late December 1765.

This collection of documents is a stark reminder of how little we valued human life in the face of new found lucrative global trading. Rum fueled this culture in more ways than just it’s market value, and that unfortunately is not it’s only sin! More to come…